Children poisoned by pesticides in Gironde, ten years later: a look back at an electroshock

May 5, 2014, Villeneuve, 350 inhabitants, near Blaye in Gironde. The tractors of two castles, whose vineyards adjoin the school, alternately treat the vines neighboring the school of this small village, against mildew and powdery mildew. Château Escalette uses products based on sulfur and copper, intended for organic farming. Château Castel La Rose, co-managed by the village mayor, Catherine Verges, spreads synthetic pesticides common in conventional agriculture.

Cough, pain in the throat, tingling of the tongue, eye irritation, nausea and headache… Signs of serious discomfort are increasing in the school. The director cancels a recess and alerts an elected official. But at the beginning of the afternoon, the teacher, who had to be evacuated by the firefighters, and around twenty students fell victim to illness. The police would not be notified until four days later.

Revealed in Sud Ouest the following May 15, the case, brought to court by environmentalist associations, would…

May 5, 2014, Villeneuve, 350 inhabitants, near Blaye in Gironde. The tractors of two castles, whose vineyards adjoin the school, alternately treat the vines neighboring the school of this small village, against mildew and powdery mildew. Château Escalette uses products based on sulfur and copper, intended for organic farming. Château Castel La Rose, co-managed by the village mayor, Catherine Verges, spreads synthetic pesticides common in conventional agriculture.

Cough, pain in the throat, tingling of the tongue, eye irritation, nausea and headache… Signs of serious discomfort are increasing in the school. The director cancels a recess and alerts an elected official. But at the beginning of the afternoon, the teacher, who had to be evacuated by the firefighters, and around twenty students fell victim to illness. The police would not be notified until four days later.

Revealed in Sud Ouest the following May 15, the case, brought to court by environmentalist associations, would make a huge noise and launch a broad debate on the exposure of local residents to pesticides used in the vineyards.

Six years of a long legal journey

At the end of its investigation, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) had not ruled out that the problems could come from spilled products, and the Regional Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Forestry (Draaf ), responsible for the first findings, had mentioned “a strong presumption of an infringement of the regulations”.

Following this incident, described at the time as “inappropriate” by these two authorities, Sepanso, a federation of environmental associations, filed a complaint against X and the NGO Générations Futures filed a civil suit.

The controversy had grown, with the FNSEA suggesting that organic products were responsible for the accident, while Générations futures relied on a note from the ARS which judged the disorders observed in children to be compatible with the effects of synthetic pesticides.

The instructions for the products concerned, authorized and used both conventionally and organically, included serious warnings. Mancozeb and spiroxamine, phytosanitary chemicals used conventionally, are described as “irritating to the skin”, “harmful by inhalation and ingestion”, and “risk of causing serious eye damage”… Same thing for heliocopper, used organically, even if it is deemed less dangerous than certain synthetic products.

The two castles condemned in court

At the end of 2015, the case was relaunched. After having closed the case for the first time without further action, the Libourne public prosecutor’s office finally opened a judicial investigation against X for “inappropriate use of plant protection products”. Sepanso had become a civil party.

“It is not a problem of phytosanitary products in general, of organic matter, or of viticulture. “It’s a problem of applying the law” targeting “a minority of wine growers who are not doing their job properly”, Me François Ruffié, lawyer for Sepanso

The key to the case related in particular to the winds, which on the day of spreading, were of an intensity greater than 3 Beaufort (12 to 19 km/h), the maximum threshold provided for by law, to authorize spraying or powdering of products phytosanitary measures, according to a Source close to the investigation.

Indicted for “inappropriate use of phytosanitary products”, the two Villeneuve castles were dismissed in September 2017, the link between the illnesses and the spraying could not be formally demonstrated. The public prosecutor’s office and Sepanso then appealed again. New twist: in May 2018, the public prosecutor of Bordeaux asked to refer the case to the criminal court of Libourne.

A “call for responsibility and wisdom of professionals”

After being acquitted at first instance by the Libourne court, the Castel la Rose and Barbe castles were finally sentenced on appeal, on November 18, 2020, for having carried out irregular spraying in May 2014, with a fine of 5,400 euros to be paid to each of the civil party associations, Sepanso and Générations futures. The court found that the winegrowers had not taken the necessary precautions to ensure that the products would not spread beyond the plots.

“This judgment is a call for responsibility and the wisdom of professionals. This affair significantly changed the discourse on spraying. We believe that this judgment will now change practices,” said Me François Ruffié, Sepanso’s lawyer. Founded after the Villeneuve event, the Alerte Pesticides Haute Gironde association welcomed, at the end of the hearing, a decision “likely to make the least conscientious wine growers responsible”.

The law and a charter of “living well together” in Gironde

On June 23, 2014, the prefect of Gironde issued an order prohibiting the treatment of vines during school hours within a radius of 50 meters around schools, when children are present. Following the Villeneuve affair, the State took several measures intended to protect vulnerable populations, namely children, the sick and the elderly. In the summer of 2014, Parliament adopted the Agricultural Future Law. During the debates, there was talk of including a strict phytosanitary component. Ségolène Royal even proposed a buffer zone of 200 meters without pesticides. Ultimately, the law recommends “the implementation of appropriate protection measures”, leaving the ball in the court of farmers and wine growers.

The Gironde prefecture, then the Egalim law, set minimum distances to be respected between crops and homes or places open to the public. In Gironde, 160 “sensitive sites”, in this case schools, have been listed by the prefecture, which concerns 128 municipalities in the department. It is recommended to plant hedges to (partially) stop pesticides carried by the winds and chemical spraying is prohibited on plots located less than 50 meters from sensitive sites.

These provisions vary, however, depending on compliance with certain voluntary commitments by farmers, provided for by a charter of “living well together”, validated in 2021 by the Gironde prefecture and supposed to be revised every year, but criticized by the associations.

And the prevention policy?

The Villeneuve affair undeniably marked a turning point in the decision-making awareness of the impact of agricultural spraying about health. Questioned by “Sud Ouest” this Friday, May 3, 2024 on prevention policy, after ten years of monitoring and studies on the impact of chemistry on health, Dr Pierre-Michel Périnaud, president of the Alerte des médecins network on pesticides, expressed his disappointment: “Ohe thought that Villeneuve’s poisonings would generate a shock and actions, that the authorities would mobilize, that a prevention policy would follow. For us, it was obvious. The results were disclosed to the scientific world in June 2022 then to the public in the fall of 2023 but nothing is happening… The Ministry of Health tells us that we have to wait for the following study, PestiRiv (from Public Health France and the ANSES on exposure to pesticides of people living in wine-growing and non-wine-growing areas expected in 2025), to put in place a policy. “.